Child abduction and kidnapping

• DEFINITION: Unlawful seizing and detaining of children, through force or enticement, with the intent of keeping the children permanently or with the intent of harming the children or concealing them from their legal parents or guardians until ransoms are paid.
• SIGNIFICANCE: State and federal law-enforcement agencies working to solve child abduction and kidnapping cases often draw upon the tools of forensic science to locate missing children and to identify children when they are recovered or when their bodies are found.

Distinctions between “child abduction” and “child kidnapping” are not always clear-cut, as the terms are not always used consistently in the news media, the sociological literature, and statutory law. Generally, however, “child abduction” is the more inclusive term and is almost always the term applied to the unlawful seizing or detaining of children by their own close relatives. Abductions by family members are also the most common form of child abduction. The word “kidnapping” tends to be applied more to abductions by nonrelatives, particularly people who are strangers to their youthful victims. That term is generally applied to cases in which perpetrators abduct children with the intention of demanding ransoms for their return, physically abusing or harming the children, or keeping them permanently separated from their legal guardians for other reasons.

In the popular public perception, many if not most abductions of children are perpetrated by strangers or by little-known acquaintances of the victims. However, most nonrelative abductions are actually perpetrated by people with whom the victims’ families are well acquainted. Nevertheless, fear of kidnapping by strangers is behind public campaigns to alert families to what is called “stranger danger” and efforts to have children carry identification cards, to collect fingerprints and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) samples of children for possible future need, and to have current photos available. Public awareness of the danger of child abduction has been kept alive by such practices as advertising missing children on milk cartons and the broadcasting of AMBER Alerts. Taking their name from “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response,” AMBER Alerts are designed to disseminate information on missing children as widely and quickly as possible. In many regions, the alerts interrupt television programs and are broadcast on electronic traffic signs over freeways, in addition to being sent via text message. These and other practices help to dramatize the dangers of child abduction and foster the perception that most abductions are perpetrated by dangerous criminals. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1,200 children were recovered through the AMBER Alert system as of 2023.

Abduction and the Law

The abduction of children is everywhere regarded as a horrendous crime against society and has prompted legislation and law-enforcement efforts to prevent its occurrence. Highly publicized kidnapping cases typically prompt fresh legislation and new antikidnapping campaigns. One of the most famous child kidnapping cases in American history was the 1932 abduction and of the infant son of Charles A. Lindbergh, a famous aviator who was regarded as a national hero. The widespread public revulsion against that crime prompted the U.S. Congress to pass legislation, the Federal Kidnapping Act, popularly known as the Lindbergh law. This law was significant because it authorized the investigation of kidnapping cases by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which draws on the largest databases and most advanced forensic tools available to law enforcement.

In 1980, Congress enacted the Federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act to address the lack of uniformity in state laws regarding kidnapping. Disparities in the laws among different states encouraged some noncustodial parents forcibly to take their children to states with less stringent requirements or to refuse to return their children to the custodial parents’ states so they could retain custody themselves. The new federal law gave the home states of abducted children priority in the resolution of custody disputes.

Several federal agencies provide assistance to local law-enforcement agencies that are investigating abducted children. In addition to the FBI, these agencies include the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Forensic Services Division of the U.S. Secret Service. The services the agencies provide include on-site investigators, access to handwriting and fingerprint databases, and laboratory analyses of and written reports. In addition, they make available consultations with forensic experts in such fields as computer forensics, forensic photography, graphic arts, video production, imaging, voice analysis, and computer modeling, and they provide experts to testify in court proceedings.

Prevalence

Among the various violent crimes perpetrated against children and juveniles in the United States, abduction is comparatively rare. In a study published in 2000, David Finkelhor and Richard K. Ormrod found that child abduction was responsible for less than 2 percent of all violent crimes against juveniles that were reported to law enforcement. Although large numbers of children are annually abducted, most abductees are returned to their families within short periods of time. However, parents and other family members are themselves responsible for most child abductions. The vast majority of children abducted throughout the United States were taken by relatives, most often the noncustodial parent.

In contrast to popular belief, the most frequent victims of nonfamily kidnapping—about 80 percent—were not young children but youths age twelve and older. Children from fifteen to seventeen years old made up nearly 60 percent of acquaintance and stranger kidnapping. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, more than 359,000 reports of missing children and young people were filed with the FBI in 2022.

Family and Acquaintance Abductions

“Parental abduction” is generally defined as taking and not returning a child in violation of the custodial rights of the child’s parent or guardian by another member of the family or someone acting on behalf of a family member. Indeed, any form of concealment of a child to prevent return, contact, or visitation is considered be unlawful abduction. Likewise, transporting a child out of a state or country with the intent to deprive the caretaker of custodial rights or contact is also unlawful abduct in order for the act to be considered abduction. In cases involving children who are fifteen years of age or older and considered mentally competent, unlawful abduction occurs only when the perpetrators use physical force or threats of bodily harm to the children who are hidden or are taken from the state. Most parental abductions involve children six years or younger, with two-year-olds being the most frequently abducted. Such abductions typically occur at the children’s homes.

Gender appears to have little bearing on parental child abduction. Statistics show that girls and boys are equally at risk of being abducted by their parents. Moreover, both mothers and fathers abduct children. However, although some studies find that noncustodial mothers and fathers are equally likely to abduct their children, others find that noncustodial fathers are more likely than mothers to be perpetrators.

Statistics for other types of abduction do show patterns that are more clearly gender-related. For example, almost three-quarters of acquaintance abductions of teenagers involve female victims. In general, teenage girls are more likely to be abducted by acquaintances than by strangers. Almost one-third of perpetrators are teenage boys. Moreover, boyfriends and former boyfriends account for nearly one-fifth of teenage girl abductions.

Stranger Abductions

Although the media often publicize stranger kidnapping, Finkelhor and Ormrod’s study of juvenile kidnapping found that stranger and nonfamily child kidnapping is rare. A comparatively small percentage of juvenile abductions conform to the stereotypical model of kidnapping—that is, the taking of children and holding them for extended periods of time, whether to attempt to extort ransom or to subject the children to sexual assault and murder. The majority of perpetrators of that kind of abduction are strangers to their victims. Most stranger kidnappings occur in outdoor settings. Nearly 60 percent of the crimes occur in such outdoor public places as parks, streets, and parking lots. Kidnappings rarely occur on school grounds.

Some gender and age patterns can be seen in stranger abductions. For example, girls are twice as likely as boys to be victims of nonfamily kidnapping. Teenagers account for more than half the victims, elementary school-age children account for just over one-third of the victims, and preschoolers are rarely targeted. About 95 percent of perpetrators of stranger kidnapping are male. About 20 percent of the abductions are connected with other violent crimes, such as sexual assault, which is most commonly inflicted on girls. When kidnapping is connected with robberies, boys are more likely to be victims, and firearms are often involved in the kidnapping.

Among infants between six and twelve months old, boys and girls are equally at risk of being abducted by strangers, and most perpetrators kidnap infants of the same race. Infants who are kidnapped tend to be in good health, and their risk of being physically injured during their abductions is low. However, the risk of harm to the parents—especially mothers—during kidnapping is high when infants are taken from their homes. Mothers are occasionally killed by kidnappers; in some instances, unborn babies are taken from their mothers’ wombs.

Forensic Techniques Used in Investigations

As with investigations into any specialized field of crime, child abduction and kidnapping investigations draw on specialized forensic tools and procedures. One of the most important aspects of many child kidnapping investigations is identifying recovered children who have not been seen by their families for many years. The method most frequently used to identify kidnap victims is simple visual recognition by their parents. However, that method may not work in cases involving children who have been away from their parents so long that their physical appearance and voices have changed and their memories have faded. Such cases generally call for advanced forensic techniques. For example, photographic manipulation and age regression techniques may be used. These techniques entail manipulating old photographs artificially to age the faces of children so they will appear to match the current ages of the kidnapped children.

Some of the methods used to identify abducted infants after they are returned employ evidence that may have been collected when the children were born. For example, matching footprints to prints recorded on birth documents is the second-most-frequently used method of identification. Other evidence that is used includes blood tests, photographs, birthmarks, hospital wristbands, and DNA samples.

In kidnapping cases, it is vital that the initial investigators collect as much evidence as possible from the crime scenes, especially when children are abducted by nonfamily members and there is a possibility of their being held for ransom or becoming targets of sexual or violent crimes. Blood samples, hair samples, fibers, and other forensic evidence must be collected as soon as possible and properly stored. Such evidence often proves crucial in tracking victims’ movements and identifying young victims after they are recovered.

Analysis of latent fingerprints is frequently an important tool in investigations of child abductions and missing children. Fingerprints often reveal the specific locations where children have been or the vehicles in which they have been transported. Latent prints also can be used to identify the child. A special problem in using fingerprint evidence in child abduction cases is that the latent prints of children may not last as long as those of adults, possibly because children’s fingers secrete less oily residue.

DNA samples taken at birth from an infant or provided by the guardians of the missing child can be very helpful in identifying a missing child. Also, DNA can place a child at a scene or in an area or in a vehicle, and this information can help authorities to track the child’s movements.

Identifying Dead Kidnap Victims

In the unfortunate cases in which kidnapping victims die, a primary task of forensic investigators is to identify the remains of whatever bodies have been recovered. The basic techniques used to identify children’s remains are the same as those used to identify remains of adults. However, the remains of juveniles do present some special problems. For example, juvenile skulls are not as fully developed as skulls of adult human beings. The shapes of skulls change considerably as individuals grow older, making it more difficult to identify the remains of children who have been missing for long periods. Changes in skull shape are particularly great during the first few years of children’s lives. The length of an infant skull is about one-quarter the full height of the body. Adult skulls are only about one-eighth of full body height. As children grow older, their skulls and bodies gradually assume adult proportions. Meanwhile, the proportions of their facial features to their heads change. For example, the nasal and dental areas become larger relative to the rest of their faces. Other physical changes occur in the pigmentation and elasticity of their skin and the distribution of fatty tissue in their faces. The forensic reconstruction of juvenile faces must take into account these and other differences between juvenile and adult faces.

Some changes in skulls of children may actually assist in estimating the children’s ages. For example, there is a consistent and predictable sequence for the formation, eruption, and loss of a child’s first teeth—or baby teeth—and their replacement with permanent teeth. Thus, the age of a preadolescent child can be estimated by examining how many teeth have emerged, the extent of calcification of the first molars, and the calcification of the dentition in its entirety.

Bibliography

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